Internet Explorer 10, Firefox 35, or Chrome 13 or greater is required to perform this upload procedure. Previous browser versions do not support the required HTML5 APIs.

You must import the required certificate authority into the web browser used to access the Administration Portal.

To import the certificate authority, browse to https://<engine_address>/ovirt-engine/services/pki-resource?resource=ca-certificate&format=X509-PEM-CA and select all the trust settings. Refer to the instructions to install the certificate authority in Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome.

To upload the appliance:

Log in to the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Portal.

Click StorageDisks.

Select UploadStart.

Click Choose File, and select the appliance image to upload.

Under Disk Options, enter an Alias for the image.

(Optional) Edit other fields in Disk Options if desired.

Click OK.

A progress bar in the Status column indicates the status of the upload. You can also pause, cancel, or resume uploads from the Upload menu.

If the upload times out and you see the message, Reason: timeout due to transfer inactivity, increase the timeout value:

# engine-config -s TransferImageClientInactivityTimeoutInSeconds=6000

Restart the ovirt-engine service:

# systemctl restart ovirt-engine

1.3. Creating a ManageIQ Virtual Machine

After uploading the appliance to the data domain, create a virtual machine containing the ManageIQ image and a second disk for the database:

In ComputeVirtual Machines, click New to open the New Virtual Machine dialog.

From the General tab, specify a name for the virtual machine and any other details.

Click Attach.

Select the ManageIQ appliance you uploaded from the list of images and click OK.

Click the VM to open its details screen, and click the Disks tab.

Click Edit to the disk, and check Bootable if it is not marked already.

Click OK.

Add a second disk for the database:

Click the General tab and click the Edit button to edit the virtual machine.

Click + and Create to create a disk for the database (VMDB).

Specify a Size in GB for the disk that allows sufficient space for your database. Red Hat recommends allocating the virtual machine disk fully at the time of creation. Three main factors affect the size of your database over time:

Virtual Machine Count: the most important factor in the calculation of virtual machine database (VMDB) size over time.

Host Count: the number of hosts associated with the provider.

Storage Count: the number of individual storage elements as seen from the perspective of the provider or host. It is not the total number of virtual disks for all virtual machines.

See "Database Requirements" in the Deployment Planning Guide for size considerations.

Set the Allocation Policy to Preallocated (thick provisioning) for best performance.

Specify any other values as desired.

Click OK to create the disk and return to the New Virtual Machine window.

Add a network interface to the virtual machine by selecting a vNIC profile from the nic1 list.

Press the number for the item you want to change, and press Enter. The options for your selection are displayed.

Follow the prompts to make the changes.

Press Enter to accept a setting where applicable.

The ManageIQ appliance console automatically logs out after five minutes of inactivity.

2.2. Configuring a Database

ManageIQ uses a database to store information about the environment. Before using ManageIQ, configure the database options for it; ManageIQ provides the following two options for database configuration:

Install an internal PostgreSQL database to the appliance

Configure the appliance to use an external PostgreSQL database

2.2.1. Configuring an Internal Database

Before installing an internal database, add a disk to the infrastructure hosting your appliance. See the documentation specific to your infrastructure for instructions for adding a disk. As a storage disk usually cannot be added while a virtual machine is running, Red Hat recommends adding the disk before starting the appliance. ManageIQ only supports installing of an internal VMDB on blank disks; installation will fail if the disks are not blank.

Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

After starting the appliance, log in with a user name of root and the default password of smartvm. This displays the Bash prompt for the root user.

If this is not the first ManageIQ appliance, choose 2) Fetch key from remote machine to fetch the key from the first appliance. For worker and multi-region setups, use this option to copy key from another appliance.

All ManageIQ appliances in a multi-region deployment must use the same key.

Choose 1) Create Internal Database for the database location.

Choose a disk for the database. This can be either a disk you attached previously, or a partition on the current disk.

Red Hat recommends using a separate disk for the database.

If there is an unpartitioned disk attached to the virtual machine, the dialog will show options similar to the following:

1) /dev/vdb: 20480
2) Don't partition the disk

Enter 1 to choose /dev/vdb for the database location. This option creates a logical volume using this device and mounts the volume to the appliance in a location appropriate for storing the database. The default location is /var/opt/rh/rh-postgresql95/lib/pgsql, which can be found in the environment variable $APPLIANCE_PG_MOUNT_POINT.

Enter 2 to continue without partitioning the disk. A second prompt will confirm this choice. Selecting this option results in using the root filesystem for the data directory (not advised in most cases).

Enter Y or N for Should this appliance run as a standalone database server?

Select Y to configure the appliance as a database-only appliance. As a result, the appliance is configured as a basic PostgreSQL server, without a user interface.

Select N to configure the appliance with the full administrative user interface.

When prompted, enter a unique number to create a new region.

Creating a new region destroys any existing data on the chosen database.

Create and confirm a password for the database.

ManageIQ then configures the internal database. This takes a few minutes. After the database is created and initialized, you can log in to ManageIQ.

2.2.2. Configuring an External Database

Based on your setup, you will choose to configure the appliance to use an external PostgreSQL database. For example, we can only have one database in a single region. However, a region can be segmented into multiple zones, such as database zone, user interface zone, and reporting zone, where each zone provides a specific function. The appliances in these zones must be configured to use an external database.

The postgresql.conf file used with ManageIQ databases requires specific settings for correct operation. For example, it must correctly reclaim table space, control session timeouts, and format the PostgreSQL server log for improved system support. Due to these requirements, Red Hat recommends that external ManageIQ databases use a postgresql.conf file based on the standard file used by the ManageIQ appliance.

Ensure you configure the settings in the postgresql.conf to suit your system. For example, customize the shared_buffers setting according to the amount of real storage available in the external system hosting the PostgreSQL instance. In addition, depending on the aggregate number of appliances expected to connect to the PostgreSQL instance, it may be
necessary to alter the max_connections setting.

ManageIQ requires PostgreSQL version 9.5.

Because the postgresql.conf file controls the operation of all databases managed by a single instance of PostgreSQL, do not mix ManageIQ databases with other types of databases in a single PostgreSQL instance.

Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

After starting the appliance, log in with a user name of root and the default password of smartvm. This displays the Bash prompt for the root user.

Enter the database name or leave blank for the default (vmdb_production).

Enter the database username or leave blank for the default (root).

Enter the chosen database user’s password.

Confirm the configuration if prompted.

ManageIQ will then configure the external database.

2.3. Configuring a Worker Appliance

You can use multiple appliances to facilitate horizontal scaling, as well as for dividing up work by roles. Accordingly, configure an appliance to handle work for one or many roles, with workers within the appliance carrying out the duties for which they are configured. You can configure a worker appliance through the terminal. The following steps demonstrate how to join a worker appliance to an appliance that already has a region configured with a database.

Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

After starting the appliance, log in with a user name of root and the default password of smartvm. This displays the Bash prompt for the root user.

You are prompted to create or fetch a security key. Since this is not the first ManageIQ appliance, choose 2) Fetch key from remote machine. For worker and multi-region setups, use this option to copy the security key from another appliance.

All ManageIQ appliances in a multi-region deployment must use the same key.

Choose 3) Join Region in External Database for the database location.

Enter the database hostname or IP address when prompted.

Enter the port number or leave blank for the default (5432).

Enter the database name or leave blank for the default (vmdb_production).

Enter the database username or leave blank for the default (root).

Enter the chosen database user’s password.

Confirm the configuration if prompted.

3. Logging In After Installing ManageIQ

Once ManageIQ is installed, you can log in and perform administration tasks.

Log in to ManageIQ for the first time after installing by:

Navigate to the URL for the login screen. (https://xx.xx.xx.xx on the virtual machine instance)

3.1. Changing the Default Login Password

Change your password to ensure more private and secure access to ManageIQ.

Navigate to the URL for the login screen. (https://xx.xx.xx.xx on the virtual machine instance)

Click Update Password beneath the Username and Password text fields.

Enter your current Username and Password in the text fields.

Input a new password in the New Password field.

Repeat your new password in the Verify Password field.

Click Login.

Appendix A: Appendix

A.1. Appliance Console Command-Line Interface (CLI)

Currently, the appliance_console_cli feature is a subset of the full functionality of the appliance_console itself, and covers functions most likely to be scripted using the command-line interface (CLI).

After starting the ManageIQ appliance, log in with a user name of root and the default password of smartvm. This displays the Bash prompt for the root user.

Enter the appliance_console_cli or appliance_console_cli --help command to see a list of options available with the command, or simply enter appliance_console_cli --option <argument> directly to use a specific option.

Table 1. Database Configuration Options

Option

Description

--region (-r)

region number (create a new region in the database - requires database credentials passed)

--internal (-i)

internal database (create a database on the current appliance)

--dbdisk

database disk device path (for configuring an internal database)

--hostname (-h)

database hostname

--port

database port (defaults to 5432)

--username (-U)

database username (defaults to root)

--password (-p)

database password

--dbname (-d)

database name (defaults to vmdb_production)

Table 2. v2_key Options

Option

Description

--key (-k)

create a new v2_key

--fetch-key (-K)

fetch the v2_key from the given host

--force-key (-f)

create or fetch the key even if one exists

--sshlogin

ssh username for fetching the v2_key (defaults to root)

--sshpassword

ssh password for fetching the v2_key

Table 3. IPA Server Options

Option

Description

--host (-H)

set the appliance hostname to the given name

--ipaserver (-e)

IPA server FQDN

--ipaprincipal (-n)

IPA server principal (default: admin)

--ipapassword (-w)

IPA server password

--ipadomain (-o)

IPA server domain (optional). Will be based on the appliance domain name if not specified.

--iparealm (-l)

IPA server realm (optional). Will be based on the domain name of the ipaserver if not specified.

--uninstall-ipa (-u)

uninstall IPA client

In order to configure authentication through an IPA server, in addition to using Configure External Authentication (httpd) in the appliance_console, external authentication can be optionally configured via the appliance_console_cli (command-line interface).

Specifying --host will update the hostname of the appliance. If this step was already performed via the appliance_console and the necessary updates made to /etc/hosts if DNS is not properly configured, the --host option can be omitted.